I want to do a modest performance upgrade to my 87 f-150, where should I start. I live in alabama, emissions laws are pretty lax here. I was thinking of running dual exhaust straight from the manifold, can that increase my HP or will gas mileage suffer severly. Help me out, Please.

 

It increase your horse power but you fuel economy will slightly decrease. Nothing severe though.

 

Get back to us with what motor you have, sometimes a good set of headers along with the duals will help even more.

 

sorry, the engine is 5.0efi V-8

 

hmm..there are all kinds of things for an efi truck...if you don't want to really tear into your engine about all you can do is add headers, exhaust, a good airfilter, change the throttle body and a few other things.. i've been around these efi set ups for quite a while but i'm no expert just yet...a hotter coil and ignition setup sure wouldn't hurt either. hope this helps and good luck!

 

Definately gotta agree with Desperado on this one about the things you can do.

You've pretty much got two things you can do. You can either tear apart your engine and completely rebuild it with higher performance alterations but its very costly and time consuming and if you don't have the know how, then its going to cost even more. The other thing is sticking with bolt on items.

As for bolt on items, could go with performance intake items with cone style filters and tube that replaces your airflow muffler and stuff and put in a new mass air flow sensor with it. If you do that though, best recommendation is to make sure its a cold intake kit. K&N is probably the best air filter you're going to find from what I hear.

A throttle body spacer is always a great idea too if not a new throttle body entirely. Some can actually produce a spin on the air which I've heard is a very good thing. Just don't go with something that you see on TV cause it actually restricts your airflow.

Changing your O2 sensor can help too. I'm not too sure how much of a help it will be but its good for helping pass the emissions tests.

Some decent headers and exhausts are definately a help for rear wheel HP and cool sounds too. If you have a cat or wanna put one on, look into free flow ones with little resistance. Remember that you don't want just a straight pipe with no restriction inside. To actually get that extra HP and torque you need to have a certain amount of back pressure. If you have no back pressure whatsoever, might as well kiss all gasmileage goodbye.

Another idea is to change your fuel filter. Something I've discovered is that most people never really pay attention to simple maintenance things like the fuel filter. Should change the fuel filter about once a year. Their cheap and its a cheap way to make sure clean fuel going into the engine. It helps.

You can also invest in ignition items. I've seen some really good ones set up for almost all driving patterns and produce multiple sparks for every firing in the cylinder instead of just one spark per firing.

And though its another basic item, spark plugs, plug wires, distributor, rotors, etc. If you look at your plug wires and see discolored spots, those are spots where your plugs are being robbed of valuable voltage. As for plugs, if its a platinum plug, its good enough really. A lot of people say should change your plugs and wires every 25,000 to 50,000 miles. No matter what kind of warranty they claim, after that many miles, its just best to replace them.

Anyways, I hope that this has helped you out a lot and if you need help or anything, don't hesitate to IM me on AIM or leave me a message. Take care and Goodluck.

James

 

Thanx for the info guys, since Im always short on cash i don't want to throw money down the exhaust pipe if you know what i meant. On the subject of headers which would be best shorty's or the standard long headers. I got about $800.00 bucks but I want to make a wise investment in my truck without going overboard. Also I was saving this truck for my son who will be of legal driving age in about a year. And I don't want him to drive to school with a lethal weapon. If you know what I mean. Some how teens and fast cars/trucks always seems to drive up the cost of insurance.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 10-Feb-02 AT 09:44 PM (EST)]if its going to be a school driver, i'd just add some headers and an exhaust that would give it a cool sound. Flowmasters or either just glasspacks would give it a good rumble. Check summit for a nice set of headers for your setup... They sell both shorties and long tubes.(they should also sell the Flowmasters, dunno about the Glasspacks though)personally i like the look of long tubes. Something that has a nice sound is the best thing for a teen because it just sounds cool

 

Well...I don't know too much about the lengths of headers or anything like that. But from what I hear with new headers and exhaust you can gain about 10-20HP. Another thing I forgot to mention was you can also reroute your fuel line. See the key to this is keeping your fuel colder and air colder going to the chambers cause when they are cold it allows more into the chamber for a bigger explosion, and so forth. But if you were to do this I would highly recommend doing the other things I mentioned first. Cause right now if you just have regular plugs and stuff that are old and nothing more then its just going to be wasting that extra fuel and gas mileage go way down hill again. Anyways, Goodluck.

James